What’s Gus Playing? Total War: Warhammer, Part 2

Our fun-size fantasy foreman fights further forward ~

Lloyd Sabin, 19 February 2018

This series is not really intended to be an After Action Report (AAR) but for right now, I suppose it is. Continuing through my first Total War: Warhammer I campaign as the Norsca, I’ve continued to explore the Old World, kill my enemies, level up and generally have a grand old time. I introduced then ins and outs of a Warhammer campaign last week for anyone unfamiliar. This week’s entry will continue to track my progress. After an embarrassing and very short false start, my campaign kicked in to high gear in earnest. You can check it out in the below screen shots.

When I developed this massive mammoth unit, I was psyched. Just one of them are capable of turning the tide of most battles. At some points, I was able to possess more than one, which led to great fun on the battlefield (for me).

Just watching it operate was a lot of fun. When its lumbering mass finally made contact with the enemy (they are very slow) it was a wonder to behold…lots of fun to use Warhammer’s giant units, and it makes you wonder why it took Creative Assembly so long to come up with the idea. I guess maybe giant units, no matter what type, don’t really fit in with historical titles.

As my campaign evolved, my influence in the Old World grew and I earned more unique items in battle and conquest, a combo RPG/RTS mechanic that works very well in this game. Each item gives a unique trait buff in specific areas of your leader’s or agent’s character.

After many turns I finally completed a Monstrous Arcanum quest, and developed the ability to recruit ‘Frost Wyrms,’ which are far more threatening in-game than they sound. Having one or more Frost Wyrms really gave my armies a massive advantage over powers fielding forces twice in number to mine, and for a while I was feeling very confident.

With my growing power, competing Norsca factions did not have a chance and I started to think that I should have been playing more aggressively from the beginning. Maybe I could have even won by this point if I had only been ass-kicking more intelligently.

I had also begun to consolidate northern provinces in to a growing empire similar to the human ones in the south. But because of my Chaos alignment, I could never get other empires to trade with me.

And just when things look to be shaping up for my eventual victory, my alignment with one god begins to alienate the other gods, and they send large, well-equipped Chaos armies against me. This sets the Old World ablaze and after several successful turns it looks like I should prepare to be on the defensive again.